Over the past couple of years, I've enjoyed the great privilege of teaching history classes at our church’s Bible Academy, held each Monday during the school year. This semester, we are learning about Arkansas history. Some weeks ago, we covered the various fish and game that call Arkansas home. Fittingly, this lesson coincided with the beginning of our state’s deer season.
To introduce this lesson, we looked to the Bible to determine whether God, in His Word, gave us any insight as to what the Christian's view ought to be concerning hunting. Our search led us to Genesis 9:1-3. It says,
“1 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. 2 The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. 3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.”
Just prior to this instruction from God, Noah had witnessed the divine judgment of God being poured out upon every living thing on the face of the earth. And when Noah was permitted to exit the ark, God gave he and all his descendants after him a command similar to what He had given to Adam (Genesis 1:29), but with one major distinction. God spoke to Noah very differently in respect to his relationship with animals. After reading this, I asked our young ones why God’s command to Noah varied from the first command to Adam. Very wisely they determined that it was due to sin.
You see, the command to fill and subdue the earth is still our stewardship before God, but sin has caused us to forsake God’s plan and substitute it with our own. And did you notice that God instilled a fear of man within all living creatures? Why did He do this? It's because He knows the heart of man. See, if animals had no fear of mankind, man would, no doubt, exploit this vulnerability to their utter demise. So God, in His wisdom, created the “hunt”. Yes, the hunt is for man to enjoy, but it also as a means of grace toward the rest of creation.
All of creation, and that includes animals, has been subjected to pain and death because of man’s sin (Romans 8:20). And yet, though they are less significant than man, God cares for them (Matthew 6:26). So, Christian, we must care for them as well.
Hunting for sustenance and even sport is not only God-ordained, it's also God-honoring. But to be reckless or wasteful, or to disregard the value of the creatures that God has made is poor stewardship of God’s creation and is nothing less than sin in His eyes. And those of us, like me, whom God has graciously planted in the great, Natural State of Arkansas (or others like it) have been granted much in the way of natural resources, including wildlife. This means that we have much responsibility in managing God’s resources well (Luke 12:48).
Dear Christian, as you take to the wild in search of fish or game, remember who has created what you now enjoy, and recall His care for what He has made. Let’s bring honor to Him, even as we enjoy the hunt.
And when that backstrap comes off the smoker, be sure to give me a holler! I prefer mine medium rare if you don't mind ;)
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